Franklin Mayor John Nelson rebuts police misconduct claims during public meeting

Faced with numerous allegations calling into question his conduct when he was a police officer, Franklin Mayor John Nelson continued to deny any wrongdoing during an event April 30 at the Franklin Public Library.

Nelson allowed residents to submit questions about the allegations against him during a public town hall at the library. Community members wrote their names and questions on cards, which were read aloud by moderator Genene Hibbler of Oak Creek, and then answered by Nelson.

“Being an employee there for nine years, in my employee file was nothing but two accolades and nothing else,” Nelson said about his time with the Waterford Police Department. “If it’s non-criminal, why — if there were no complaints, there was no violation of policy and procedure, rule or regulation — why were we put on paid administrative leave?”

Nearly 100 Franklin residents attended the meeting.

Nelson, his partner and several other officers from the Waterford Police Department were placed on administrative leave May 6, 2024. Nelson, a lieutenant, retired from the department on Oct. 11, 2024, amid an internal investigation into multiple complaints about his conduct.

According to documents related to the investigation and obtained by the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, the allegations against Nelson include:

• Fostering a hostile work environment.

• Sexually harassing or making inappropriate comments toward female officers, making them feel “verbally violated.”

• Sexual comments and ongoing flirting toward female civilians.

• Showing inappropriate images of females Nelson allegedly dated or had sexual relations with to other officers.

• Improper use of Town of Waterford resources while campaigning for mayor and conducting mayoral business for Franklin.

• Derogatory/unprofessional phone conduct while on duty in the presence of other personnel.

• Preferential treatment in scheduling officers.

• Retaliation against some officers.

• Failure to use the FTO program, a full-time officer program related to training.

• Oversight of an unauthorized private security service getting paid in cash.

• Dissemination of sensitive information containing an employee’s personnel file to other department members.

In an April 28 interview with the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, Nelson denied all allegations, claiming there were never any official complaints or grievances filed against him. He said the accusations were part of a “he said, she said” narrative targeting him.

Nelson repeated those denials during the town hall, accusing media outlets and social media users of attacking him over the allegations.

He characterized the investigation as an effort to discredit him, allegedly led by former Town of Waterford Chairwoman Teri Jendusa-Nicolai, whom Nelson said he once considered a friend.

He said Jendusa-Nicolai “weaponized” the investigation.

“As she sits in this room, I would’ve never done this to you,” he said. “I considered her a friend for almost nine years ― we talked often. We talked about officials, we talked about the challenges of being elected officials.”

When a resident asked Nelson how he could accuse Jendusa-Nicolai of weaponizing the investigation without evidence, Nelson said Jendusa-Nicolai had no facts or complaints to support the claims.

During a post-meeting interview, Jendusa-Nicolai denied this claim.

Nelson further alleged that a female officer who had filed a complaint against him was later placed on the Brady list, a list compiled by the Milwaukee County District Attorney’s Office of law enforcement officials who have allegations of dishonesty, bias or past crimes.

Jendusa-Nicolai said after the town hall that the female officer was not on the Brady list.

Audience reaction to Nelson’s comments was mixed, with some applauding him and others opting to leave before the meeting was over.

Nelson also addressed allegations related to his time at the Milwaukee County Sheriff’s Office

Nelson also faces allegations about his conduct from his 26-year tenure at the Milwaukee County Sheriff’s Office prior to his time in Waterford.

TMJ4 has reported that disciplinary records show allegations of Nelson cheating on law enforcement exams and sexual harassing a female corrections officer.

Nelson said the allegations aren’t true and that the woman involved in the complaint had issues with other employees in two different locations while he was a lieutenant at the sheriff’s office.

“I tried to get her repositioned somewhere else,” he said. “I offered to take it to internal affairs, and then (she) made some crazy allegations about me that was investigated. They were unfounded.”

Nelson also said the reports about him cheating on his exams were not true and claimed that he offered to take the test orally in front of the class.

The Journal Sentinel has submitted an open records request to the Milwaukee County Sheriff’s Office for additional information.

Former Town of Waterford Chairwoman Teri Jendusa-Nicolai denied Nelson’s claims that she weaponized the investigation

After the town hall, Jendusa-Nicolai told the Journal Sentinel she went to the meeting to see what Nelson had to say and that never in a million years would she think she’d be in the spot she was put in.

“There’s been a lot of things going on for the past year,” Jendusa-Nicolai said. “It’s been a long time that we weren’t able to tell people what was going on while the investigations were happening. I’m sure people understand while investigations are happening, we can’t talk about them.”

When asked about Nelson denying the accusations, she said the transcripts speak for themselves.

“You have numerous officers who were interviewed and they said what they said,” Jendusa-Nicolai said. “I had nothing to do with any of that. These are pretty heavy allegations, so we needed to do something about it.”

The investigation finished when Nelson retired because the town did not want to keep spending money once he left the department Jendusa-Nicolai said.

Got any tips or stories to share? Contact Adrienne Davis at amdavis@gannett.com. Follow her on X at @AdriReportss

This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Franklin Mayor denies police misconduct allegations at town hall